When you're digging through the internet and reading essays, articles, or even having an argument with a person, it's often tough to immediately spot where the argument breaks down. Professor of Philosophy Daniel C Dennett suggests that one key word to look for as a sign of a weak argument for is "surely."

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Spotting a weak argument is all about finding the tells in a way a person writes or speaks. In some cases, this is comes about in word choice, and "surely" is a good red flag:

When you’re reading or skimming argumentative essays, especially by philosophers, here is a quick trick that may save you much time and effort, especially in this age of simple searching by computer: look for “surely” in the document, and check each occurrence. Not always, not even most of the time, but often the word “surely” is as good as a blinking light locating a weak point in the argument.

Surely isn't always an indicator for a weak argument, but it's a good sign that you need to start paying attention. While Dennett makes the argument that this is useful in essays, it's just as much of a red flag in conversation as well. If nothing else it makes a good tip to add to your toolbox of ways to productively call people out on their BS.